Fluoride Plant Workers Assault, Kidnap Crew Filming Factory

A German television crew was attacked and detained by Chinese workers at the Do-Fluoride plant near Jiaozuo, Henan province. Nine hours later, armed Chinese police arrived to escort them to safety. The crew was filming a story on the factory’s pollution. Their camera—but not the tape—was returned.

This comes after Japanese reporter Atsushi Okudera was beaten by 15 to 20 police officers. Okudera was covering an environmental protest in Nantong, Jiangsu province, and was not given back his camera.

“We were considered spies”

According to the German crew, “Factory officials appeared to have misinformed workers and agitated against us. We were considered spies who had tried to gather intelligence regarding Do-Fluoride’s technology.” When the Associated Press pursued questions beyond Do-Fluoride’s personnel, the referred phone number went unanswered.

Behind the Heavily Guarded Fluoride Plant

Portland recently joined the ranks of American cities succumbing to dollar signs and widespread fluoride in drinking water – poisoning even more unwilling consumers. It even says so on the bag, marked with the blatant warning “toxic,” complete with skull and crossbones. Dr. Dean Burk, former head of Cytochemistry Section at the National Cancer Institute declared in 1977 that fluoridation had already caused about 10,000 cancer deaths. One Italian study insists that we must acknowledge the possibility that fluoride toxicity in the environment could dangerously affect birds, other vertebrates, and aquatic life—a danger the German crew ay have been in the process of reporting. On a less serious but still notable mention, fluoride is also causing cases of skeletal fluorosis.

With ever-mounting controversy of unregulated factories and product recalls, the Chinese government is desperately trying to clean up its act. Earlier this month, officials detained nearly 2,000 people and seized $180 million worth of counterfeit drugs.